Fake or Fortune series.

[Garmard]

Did anyone see the programme "Fake or Fortune" last Sunday?
So much evidence was thrown up to suggest the landsape painting the owner possessed was in fact a Monet, but the Wildenstein Institute that is responsible for the Monet collection thought otherwise, and in my mind the institute came across as a little offhanded and arrogant at best.
Do you believe it was a Monet??

[Lie-in King]

Yes I did & can't believe that no-one has told the Wildensteins where to go & what to do when they get there!

Just tell all the Monet collectors where you'll be setting up a private auction & watch the money roll in. What can they do to stop it?

[Garmard]

I agree Lie-in King...LOL.

[alexanderd]

I watched it and I agree entirely it is a Monet

[heathfield]

I don't think the Monet collectors would touch it with a bargepole after the Wildenstein's pronouncement. Have you ever seen such sheer arrogance in proclaiming that their judgement was not based on the evidence, but on their own ''connoisseur-ship''. I.e. If we don't think it's a Monet, then it can't be. I reckon they are just too full of their own self-importance to admit that Wildenstein senior was wrong when he made the original declaration that it wasn't by Monet.

[Lie-in King]

It's "The Emperor's New Clothes" - everyone's afraid of being the first to question the mighty House of Wildenstein! Gather all the other experts, have them issue a statement that Wildenstein is naked & see what happens to the supercilious morons then...

... If nothing's achieved, it'd still be fun!

[jno]

auctioning won't do you much good; collectors are unlikely going to risk millions of dollars (the difference between a real Monet and a fake) on something that an accepted authority says is a fake. Even if they're wrong you'd have trouble selling it on; you'd be betting they'd change their minds, and they mightn't.

It didn't look that much like other Monets I've seen, and for all I know it could well be a forgery. But the evidence in favour of it being real seemed pretty persuasive.

Prof House had a letter in the paper yesterday

http://www.guardian.c...24/monet-in-the-frame

[wolf63]

It's snobs like these Wildenstein's that say that Vettriano isn't an artist and that his paintings are of no artistic value. I love Vettriano's paintings - and that is what counts.

I didn't see the programme but the experts were asked only for their opinion of the painting - that is all it should have - an opinion not a condemnation.

Are they related to Jocelyn Wildenstein?